Annexation proposals get more county debate

By AUTUMN HUGHES

Posted 3/6/18

Two annexation requests were approved by the Bradley County Commission during its meeting Monday night. However, a last-minute change to one of the interlocal agreements resulted in lengthy discussion.

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Annexation proposals get more county debate

Posted
Tuesday, March 6, 2018 10:13 am

By AUTUMN HUGHES

Two annexation requests were approved by the Bradley County Commission during its meeting Monday night. However, a last-minute change to one of the interlocal agreements resulted in lengthy discussion.

During his comments, Bradley County Mayor D. Gary Davis presented a revised interlocal agreement regarding a resolution authorizing Davis to enter into an annexation interlocal agreement with the city of Cleveland related to the non-contiguous annexation of the property currently owned by Steve Williams at APD 40 and Holloway Road.

Davis recommended changing Section 2, which is the cooperative and performance agreement, regarding services to be provided by the city for interceding properties located in Bradley County between the annexed property and the City boundary. The revised section states: “The parties agree that the City will provide fire protection services to the property located in the County at 119 Holloway Road SW, Map and Parcel 065 003.01.”

Davis said that property at 119 Holloway Road S.W. is not part of the area to be annexed. He added that without this change to the interlocal agreement, the Cleveland Fire Department station “across the street” from that property could not respond to a fire at that address, but could respond to the proposed annexation area.
Davis said this change moves emergency services coverage from the county to the city so that the property not annexed could be served by the city.

County Commission Vice Chairman Jeff Yarber said the property Davis named is one that the owner doesn’t want to have annexed. He said there could be a time when a property inside the city limits is closer to a county-owned fire hall and he hopes the county would extend the same courtesy to that city property, and put out a fire.

Commissioner Charlotte Peak said as long as the city agrees to the change, she sees no issue with it.
“I don’t think the city will have a problem with it,” Yarber said, adding he would have preferred to discuss the change with city officials ahead of time.

Davis said his job is to try to provide the best fire protection to county residents and he believes by adding the revised section to the interlocal agreement he is doing that.

After more discussion, the commission approved Resolution 2018-07 to enter into an interlocal agreement for the Williams property, including the revised section related to fire protection services for the property not being annexed. Commissioners also approved Resolution 2018-08 for an interlocal agreement regarding annexation of another property on Old Chattanooga Pike.
In other business, the Commission:

• Approved a recommendation from the Finance Committee to approve a Bradley County Sheriff’s Office budget amendment to move $237,354.05 from the fund balance to the jail’s medical and dental services budget line item. The reason for the move is medical cost pool overage for budget year 2016-17 and medical cost to cover the new medical contract.
“Medical cost is something we are going to have to watch extremely closely” over the coming years, Finance Committee Chairman Milan Blake said. “Inmate health care is going to be a big item.”

The next meeting of the Bradley County Commission is slated for noon on Monday, March 12, at the Bradley County Schools’ central office.